W.Va. gov urges roof checks, new storm approaches

State, city and county officials were working with engineers, architects and others to identify at-risk buildings, especially in the Eastern Panhandle, said Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Jimmy Gianato.

Officials are trying to prevent a repeat of the winter of 1998 when roof cave-ins were blamed for at least three deaths.

Manchin said he's especially concerned about buildings with flat roofs like supermarkets and schools, which may not have been built to withstand so much weight.

The weight of snow can vary widely, from about 10 pounds per cubic foot of fresh snow and increasing to 30 pounds or more as the snow is compressed. Parts of the Eastern Panhandle already have 3 feet on the ground and could see another foot by Thursday.

More than 40 counties are under winter storm warnings through Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.

"Every business person and public building should know what their critical limits are," Manchin said.

In Jefferson County, workers were kept out of the local Red Cross and the Jefferson County Health Department because the roofs had started to buckle.

Snow had already started falling and the roads were growing slick in Jefferson County by late Tuesday morning, said Jennifer Maggio, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County emergency management center.

The Red Cross and volunteers were scrambling to relocate a shelter they had planned to open at the flat-roofed Jefferson High School, shifting supplies and staff to Covenant Baptist Church in Shepherdstown.

"It's just for the safety of the public," Maggio said.

Only one flat roof in the county posed an immediate concern: Maggio said the roof of the public service and health department building had shifted, so the county blocked access to it.

No roof collapses has been reported, Maggio said, and many residents were trying to remove the snow from their roofs.

Schools across the Eastern Panhandle counties have already been canceled through Wednesday, mainly because of the challenge in navigating roads.

"Sometimes we're just lucky enough to have room for a car to get through a certain street, let alone a bus," said Berkeley County Superintendent Manny Arvon.

Allegheny Power crews were working to restore service to about 14,600 customers who lost power over the weekend.

Preston County Emergency Management Director Duane Hamilton was warning residents to stock up on medicines and other critical supplies in advance of the heavy snowfall predicted Tuesday night.

"Our concern now is the blowing snow," he said. "We're expecting higher winds with this storm, and some areas are real susceptible to being covered in that blowing snow and shut down."

About 300 National Guard troops have been dispatched to the Eastern Panhandle and to Preston and Monongalia counties in north-central West Virginia, and Lt. Col. Michael Cadle said they will stay as long as needed.

Troops are helping to move food, water, medicine and oxygen, and transport people in emergencies.

For many communities, the biggest challenges are where to put the snow that's already accumulated and how to move what's coming.

"We've got the men, but we don't have the equipment," said Keyser Mayor Sonny Rhodes, whose five city-owned pickup trucks have taken a beating while trying to plow more than 30 inches of heavy, wet snow.

City crews have been dumping much of it alongside the railroad tracks with permission from CSX and as of Tuesday morning, the main arteries through town were clear.

But one city truck with a plow was demolished over the weekend, its frame bent, after it slid down a bank and got hung up on a log, Rhodes said. Another truck's plow broke, and one Chevy truck has been sent to Winchester, Va., where Rhodes is hoping to outfit it with a plow.

"But that won't be done until Thursday," the mayor said. "We're really hurting as far as equipment goes."

In Wheeling, crews struggled to relocate 12 to 24 inches of snow, working around the clock to clear streets and sidewalks.

"Because it was such a big snowfall and because some of these areas have such tight sidewalks, there really is no place for the snow," said Rusty Jebbia, director of public works. "So by the time the plow comes through and by the time somebody throws the snow back off of the sidewalk, it ends up in the parking lane."